Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

11 reviews

ibadella's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

why was this listed as a historical romance? i did not get romance vibes. it was like coming of age thriller shitshow

i understand that this book has a very narrow and subjective point of view from the flawed main character but i would have like to see a tiny bit more attention paid to the background characters (who tended to have more marginalized identities and were generally homogenized by jacob’s narration). also sometimes felt like the author was forcing themself to write how they think a straight man thinks and it made us both feel icky

made me emo about zoo animals

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Murder, and Sexual harassment

vivilevone's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

4.0

VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE MUSICAL. hachi machi. good book, though. dark and gritty. not exactly inspiring. tragic. hopeful ending. really much more about unlikely found family than any romance. elephant was the best character. 
standout line: "is where you're from the place you're coming from, or where you have roots?"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape

nellzzzz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Sexual assault, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Alcohol

alex_grace1's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Sexual content

Minor: Ableism, Racial slurs, and Racism

Some warnings about the sexual content

There is essentially a drunk rape scene. it’s not treated as such by the characters but it is mentioned briefly to be non-consensual and where the main character was nearly blackout drunk. Theres also a pretty graphic stripping scene, a brief masturbation scene, and sexual content all up the wazoo.

adisiki's review against another edition

I hated this and was gonna force myself to finish but why bother. It was written well and the story was constructed well, but I hated the subject matter. The circus sucks and people involved should burn in hell for how they treat those animals. I just can’t do animal cruelty so I couldn’t continue reading this. Also, Jacob was basically sexually assaulted and that’s it? I didn’t enjoy how graphic some of it was, it felt gratuitous and unnecessary, not like it was adding to the story at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Sexual assault

annmierl's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Antisemitism, Car accident, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

sarahbethhh's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol

Minor: Mental illness

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Misogyny, Racism, Terminal illness, Vomit, Dementia, Trafficking, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

planetshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don’t know whether it’s just because of who I am, but I don’t think this is very romantic. It is very centered around thoughts of sex and overly anatomical descriptions of bodies (boobs’ descriptions were weird and often related to acidic fruits and penises sounded repulsive), but doesn’t feel at all like other books I’ve read that are categorized as romances.

The way Jacob — 90 (or 93) — is written is wonderful. I don’t know exactly what elders think, but I grew up with grandparents as my guardians and I feel an oddly sentimental connection with the more utilitarian thoughts that were written.

I feel this may be worth mentioning: the author uses non-colloquial vocabulary when referring to a body. If that might be uncomfortable for you, you probably should let this one go.

Nonetheless, I liked it and thought it was a fun journey to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Lots of thoughts. I love the different perspectives,  Jacob from when he’s 93 and then when he’s like 20 something maybe even younger. The romance was kinda meh, I’m glad it wasn’t the main focus at least in my opinion. I’m really upset that old guy and Walter died. Walters last moments must have been horrifying. I’m glad Jacob took Queenie in. And Rosie especially. I’m also glad she killed august. I wonder how Marlene knew the baby wasn’t augusts baby. The abuse that Rosie sustained was unbearable and unbelievable it was the most horrific descriptions I have ever read in a book. Which also made me hate the hook at the same time. Also the ending, it was literally amazing. I’m so glad he can like die doing something he loves doing, you know in a circus at the very. It’s one of the best ways to end the book I feel like. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism